by JM Stewart
She gave a small nod. “Two weeks ago.”
He lifted a shoulder. “So, what’d he say?”
She remained silent for a moment, chewing on her lower lip, as if caught in indecision. Finally, she drew in a deep, shaky breath, fire igniting her eyes.
“He was awful. He actually denied the baby was his. Can you believe that?” She drew her brows together and put her hands to her hips, glaring as if her predicament were his fault. “He was my first, for God’s sake. My only. How could it be anyone else’s?”
Kyle couldn’t stop his eyes from widening or his mouth from dropping open. “Your first? You’re kidding me.”
They’d known each other for twenty years. They’d always told each other everything. Sex, however, was the one subject they didn’t discuss, and he couldn’t hide his shock.
“No, I’m not.” Color stole into her cheeks, and she diverted her gaze to the floor. Her left hand slipped up to toy with the ends of her hair.
“I’m sorry. You surprised me with that last bit. I lost my virginity when I was sixteen in the back of Pam Waters’s Honda.” He let out a nervous laugh and squeezed her fingers. “Keep going. Tell me what happened.”
She sighed. “That’s about it. You were right. Jimmy’s an ass.”
Regret tightened in his chest. Damn.
He shot her an apologetic frown. “I didn’t want to be. I just didn’t like the way he treated you. He talked down to you sometimes, and it made me crazy. You deserve better than that. What’d he say?”
Ceci looked down at the floor, flexing her toes into the linoleum flooring. Dejection hung on her, rounding shoulders, as if it weighed her down.
“I should have listened. I found out I was pregnant about a month ago. It took me two weeks to work up the courage to tell him. Two weeks ago, I invited him over and I finally told him. God, I was terrified. I honestly had no idea how he’d react, but I didn’t expect . . . that. At first he just stood there, staring at me like I’d grown two more heads. Then his face screwed up in anger. He jabbed a finger at me and told me if I wanted a cent from him I’d have to prove he was the father. Then he stormed from the house.”
Kyle bit the inside of his cheek to keep his reaction from leaving his mouth. Ceci didn’t need to hear negativity right now, but the significance of her words struck his heart like a wayward arrow. The green-eyed monster reared its ugly head. She gave the schmuck something special, a gift. Something he’d kill to have received from her. Except Jimmy took it for granted, used her, and spit her out. To top it all off, the schmuck left her alone and pregnant. The cop in him couldn’t help wondering exactly how many times Jimmy had heard those words before.
He drew in a deep breath to stem the intense desire to find Jimmy and put a dent in his jaw and instead reached up to pull her hand from her hair, holding it in his.
Before he could gather his thoughts, she lifted her gaze, her brows drawn together in an apologetic frown. “I’m sorry. I came at a bad time. I’m going to make you late for work.”
Work. Right. He raked a hand through his hair, not caring that the ends were probably all sticking straight up, and glanced at the digital clock on his nightstand. Technically, he had five minutes to get dressed before he needed to leave. Traffic on Meridian could be hell this time of day. If he didn’t leave soon, he’d be late.
“Yeah, I need to finish getting dressed. Captain’ll kill me if I’m late again.” He stroked his thumb across her knuckles, returned the same awkward smile, and forced himself to release her hand. Then he slipped past her into his bedroom, yanking off his wet T-shirt.
***
Cecelia’s heartbeat thundered in her ears as Kyle trekked across the bedroom. As he tossed his plain white T-shirt onto the bed, she swallowed hard, unable to stop from staring in abject fascination at his now-bare torso. Kyle had a sleek, strong back, with thick, broad shoulders and a wide chest that tapered to a narrow waist and lean hips. Memories of summers past flitted across the recesses of her mind. Him wearing only a pair of khaki shorts, his bronzed skin glimmering beneath the sun. Heat curled low in her belly, her fingers itching to reach out and touch him.
“You might want to turn around.” He tossed her a glance as he tugged a clean shirt over his head and crossed the room to the metal, two-drawer file cabinet that served as his nightstand.
Cecelia clasped her shaking hands together until the knuckles turned white and jerked her gaze to his face. She prayed he couldn’t see the way hers caught fire. God, she had to stop doing that. He was her best friend, for crying out loud. She couldn’t pinpoint when exactly the thoughts started, but somewhere over the past three or four months, Kyle stopped being just Kyle.
The truth was, he was right about Jimmy. Jimmy could be sweet when he wanted to be, but when she wouldn’t give him what he wanted or cave to his demands, he could be a downright jerk. She and Kyle had argued a lot about the way he treated her, and every time they’d fight, she’d find herself comparing the two men. Sadly, Jimmy always came up short.
More to the point, Jimmy’s lacking had her looking at Kyle differently, more so since she’d discovered she was pregnant. Hormones had her libido running amuck. The truth was, Kyle was good to the women he dated. He was sweet and kind and thoughtful, and he was a one-woman man. She discovered too late that Jimmy wasn’t. Before they broke up, one of the girls at the flower shop finally admitted to seeing him with another woman.
And somewhere over the past few months, Kyle stopped being the guy she’d known since before she liked boys. Suddenly, she noticed the man. The broadness of his shoulders. The curves of his well-defined biceps. The crooked smile she’d seen for twenty years began to make her heart skip a beat, and his gentle, giving nature made her stomach flutter in a very “schoolgirl with a crush” sort of way.
The thoughts always came out of nowhere, immediate and powerful, leaving her struggling with where in the world they’d come from. Kyle would pull her into a hug, the way he’d done her whole life, and she’d be noticing the hard muscle of his chest instead of relaxing into his embrace.
It made her doubt herself and filled her with questions. Had the thoughts always been there and she simply hadn’t seen them? She didn’t know, and she didn’t know what to do with them, except push them aside. Because falling for Kyle meant risking losing him and she couldn’t—wouldn’t—go there. Rational or not, he was the only family she had left, and the thought of losing him, too, scared her to death.
“Unless you’re feeling braver these days.” Kyle arched a brow as he pulled his keys from the pocket of his khakis and tossed them to the bed. He picked up a light blue dress shirt and shoved his right arm into the sleeve.
With an indrawn gasp, Cecelia clamped her hands over her eyes and spun around but managed to control the urge to flee the room altogether. That meant only one thing—Kyle was about to strap on his gun. All thoughts of her newfound attraction to her best friend deserted her. In their place, the icy hands of fear wrapped around her throat. Her heart began its familiar fierce thumping, her chest already tightening.
Oh God. She hated guns.
She took deep breaths. Desperate to distract herself, she latched onto the first thought to enter her mind. “I don’t know why you have to have that thing.”
Breathe. Just breathe.
Okay, so she did. She’d watched him go through college, then the police academy, from a rookie patrolling the streets to earning his promotion to detective a few years ago. All that mattered right then was talking, ignoring the sounds memory told her would follow as he strapped the weapon to his body. She’d been here before, had watched him as he prepared his weapon and strapped on the holster. Talking always helped divert her thoughts, helped her to ignore the fear that already overwhelmed her system.
She had no idea where the fear came from or how it had started, but for as long as she could remember, guns had always terrified her. She’d seen a therapist for it for a while to no avail. The mere sight of one sent he
r heart pounding out of control. Her palms grew clammy, and her lungs refused to function. Exactly how she felt now. It was as if she stared down the barrel of one and waited for someone to pull the trigger and end her life.
A panic attack, her therapist had called it. Clearly, she had a phobia. Hoplophobia, he’d told her. Not that giving her fears a name ever stopped the attacks from coming. The panic rose immediate and uncontrollable. That Kyle wore a gun every day scared her to death. It meant he might have to use it, which meant facing the possibility of him getting shot. And the thought of losing him wasn’t something she wanted to ponder.
“I’m a cop. It’s part of the uniform.” Kyle repeated his part of the conversation, his voice somber, understanding. “Keep talking. I’m almost done.”
The sound of metal sliding against metal sounded in the silence, followed by a click, sending goose bumps shivering down her spine. Her stomach lurched, and gruesome images popped into her thoughts. Blood spreading across a floor, bullet wounds, cold, lifeless bodies with sightless eyes. Where they came from, she didn’t know, but they resembled the horrible nightmares that had plagued her off and on since childhood.
“You know, you can always force Jimmy’s hand if he won’t come willingly. In fact, you should. He doesn’t get to decide he doesn’t want to be a father. A blood test is all it takes.”
His comment dragged her mind back to the subject she didn’t want to think about anymore that night. Namely, her unexpected pregnancy and all the tangled emotions it wrought. The tightening in her chest eased a fraction but didn’t completely let up.
She took another slow, deep breath and released it, then grabbed Kyle’s conversation thread and ran with it.
“No.” She shook her head, but the thought had anger and hurt rising all over again. She’d wanted her relationship with Jimmy to last. She had yet to have her first love, and she was beginning to wonder if something was wrong with her that she hadn’t. “It’s not like I need the money. The house is paid for. The flower shop covers the rest of the bills, and I still have the trust fund Gran gave me when I turned twenty-one. I haven’t needed to use it yet, but it’s there if I ever do. If he doesn’t want to be a part of this, then I don’t need or want his help.”
The mention of her grandmother sent the old familiar pain wrapping around her chest. Her grandmother raised her, officially adopting her when she was seven. Or so Gran had told her. Cecelia didn’t actually remember. She didn’t remember much of anything before the day she’d come to live with Gran, next door to Kyle and his family. Gran was the only mother Cecelia had ever known, and yet deep inside lay the knowledge that she’d had parents at some point. After all, you couldn’t come into this world without them, so, what happened to hers?
The thoughts had filled her with questions over the years. Rather than answer, though, Gran would always evade or outright change the subject. Once, when Cecelia was about fifteen, she’d demanded an answer. Gran had smiled that sweet smile and very calmly told her, “They’re gone, sweetie. You have me now. That’s all that matters. We have each other.” Then she’d hugged her and walked away.
Three years ago, her grandmother had come down with a case of pneumonia she hadn’t been able to shake. Her grandmother had a chronic lung condition from years of smoking. It never failed that every winter she’d end up in the hospital. That winter, three years ago, she’d spent two months there. Eventually, her body gave out.
She got her love of flowers from Gran. Gran had had one of the best gardens in the state. She was always outside, with her hands in the soil, tending her plants. She’d shown Cecelia everything, from when to water, to how to fertilize to produce the best blooms, to how to group the plants together so they complemented one another.
Over the years, word had gotten out. Gran placed in several gardening contests, which landed her in the paper. Her garden was labeled one of the top in the state. People came from all over to get tips for their gardens and bouquets to put on their table. About ten years ago, Cecelia finally convinced her to open a small shop nearby. Full Bloom sat in a small shopping center on one of the busier streets in the area. The shop was a work in progress, but like everything else, Gran had had a knack for business. She’d been good with people, and with each regular customer they gathered, the store grew steadily every year.
After her death, Cecelia had taken over the shop. She had to admit, she loved being there, loved working with the flowers. Every day at the shop was like spending time with Gran. Some days, she swore she could still hear her calling out. Cecelia, sweetheart, go in the back and bring up those roses I just clipped . . .
Cecelia sighed, her chest aching. She missed her the most on days like this. If Gran were here now, she’d know the exact right thing to say that would ease all her fears in one fell swoop.
“Well, you know you can always count on me.”
Kyle’s gentle encouragement had the last of the panic finally releasing its hold on her chest. She smiled, warmth and relief seeping into her heart. This was why she’d walked over here in the pouring rain. She always knew she could count on him, that no matter what happened between them, he’d be there. And for the first time in a long time, she wanted to take advantage of that.
“Can I stay here tonight?” She folded her hands together and prayed he wouldn’t turn her down. “Jimmy’s supposed to come over to pick up his belongings, and I don’t want to be there when he does.”
Okay, so that was an excuse and a flat-out lie. She’d stopped seeing Jimmy two weeks ago, the day she’d told him she was pregnant. He’d stormed from her house with a slam of the screen door. What little he kept at her place could fit in a shoebox, which currently sat out in the grass beyond her porch. She’d hurled it out the front door after him that day.
Today, she needed her best friend. Her grandmother’s house felt too large, too quiet, as it often did. She needed Gran’s advice, but all she had was the big, empty house echoing around her. It made her feel alone, more than she had in a while.
She might not have meant to come here when she started walking ten minutes ago, but she didn’t want to leave. She knew darn well she’d taken a risk, wanting to stay with him, having to face this newfound attraction. But she needed her best friend. His strong embrace always made everything right, reminded her she wasn’t all alone in the world, and right then, she needed that the most. Whatever emotions being close to him brought, she’d deal with them.
“Sure you can trust Jimmy not to steal anything?”
Kyle’s question was a serious one but spoken with enough sarcasm she couldn’t accuse him of sounding contemptuous. A tone he used often in reference to Jimmy. Kyle had never liked him, nor had he bothered to hide it.
Cecelia heaved a sigh, the heat of shame creeping up her neck and into her cheeks. “You must think I’m a complete idiot.”
Twenty-seven years she’d waited, for the right man, the right time, afraid to trust her heart. Most of her boyfriends lasted anywhere from a few weeks to a few months before the panic set in. Her relationship with Jimmy had lasted longer than any other. Letting someone close meant opening up and inviting them into her heart. That kind of intimacy terrified her. It meant a leap of faith she’d never been able to make before with any man except Kyle and his brothers. And even then, the Morgan family had grown on her over time, in large part because they were friendly and patient.
She’d tried with Jimmy, though, and now she felt like a fool. Her grandmother’s stern warnings echoed through her mind. You have to be careful, Cecelia. People aren’t always what they appear to be.
“Gran always warned me to be careful about whom I trusted, to only give my heart to those worthy. She drilled it into me, over and over. Every friend I brought home, every boy I wanted to date. Are you sure you can trust him, Cecelia? There are bad people out there who can hurt you. You have to be careful. God, I can still hear her.” She shook her head. She used to think her grandmother had lost her mind, her distrust of people had bee
n so encompassing. Gran was the epitome of overprotective. Now, she had to admit, maybe Gran knew something she didn’t. “I should’ve listened.”
Gran had been right, at least as far as Jimmy was concerned. Only now that their relationship was over did she see all the problems within it. Jimmy could be a sweet talker when he wanted something. Usually, it was sex. Even if the shop had been busy and she was exhausted, he’d sweet-talk her into giving in, even going so far as to convince her she wanted it. Despite all the years of growing up with Gran, Jimmy had slipped past her radar.
“People make mistakes, Ceci. God knows I have. You remember Kaitlyn?”
Oh, she remembered Kaitlyn, all right. Just thinking about the tall blonde had another confusing array of emotions knotting her stomach. Kaitlyn was Kyle’s last girlfriend. The woman had a fetish for men in uniform. She’d hung all over him. Kyle found out a little too late he wasn’t the only cop she had a fascination with. Cecelia had loathed the woman to the point she’d make excuses why she couldn’t see Kyle if he had Kaitlyn with him. She didn’t want to contemplate what it meant that she’d gotten so upset over her. She definitely didn’t want to face the possibility she was actually jealous. That was a road she refused to travel.
“All right, I’m done. You can turn around now.”
She dropped her arms to her sides and turned to face him. He stood in the same spot, staring at her, a tender smile curving his mouth. The sight of him caught her, and Cecelia couldn’t help smiling in return. She loved the way he looked when he dressed for work. He currently wore a crisp, clean light blue dress shirt that brought out the same color in his eyes, over which he wore a dark blazer. Khakis hugged his lean hips yet fell loose down his long legs, barely hinting at the corded muscles memory told her lurked beneath.
